


You can’t solve all your problems by singing some stupid song!

by Yellowbirdbluetoo



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angry Steven, But Not Much, Post SU Movie, Steven Universe Future Spoilers, Teen for language and some violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:02:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21737272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yellowbirdbluetoo/pseuds/Yellowbirdbluetoo
Summary: So what if he’s fighting Jasper in the woods, almost everyday now? Is it really a big deal? It’s just to let some pressure off, because he’s been nothing but stressed.It’s no one else’s business anyways
Comments: 6
Kudos: 71





	1. Lost in the woods

“Is that all you got!”. 

Steven jumped out of the way as Jasper slammed into the ground where he’d been standing just a split second ago. 

“Ha! No way!”. He conjured one of his shields, and sent it flying it at her, grinning as it clipped her arm, and caused her to have a unsteady landing, and land in a roll on the ground. She smirked at him as he landed on the ground in front of her, and without hesitation, smashed her giant fist into the ground sending out a shockwave that sent him flying backwards into a tree. 

Quick as lightning she had him pinned, to the point where he almost couldn’t breathe. 

“Touchdown”. She said, releasing him. He took a quick gasp for breath, massaging his sore throat. “It’s checkmate”.

She skimmed him up and down. “Yeah yeah, whatever. Again. You keep repeating the same moves. If your not don’t stop sucking, I’ll beat you without even trying”.

“Don’t want that”. He huffed, rolling his eyes when she smirked at his sarcastic response. He was known for being always smiley, all the time. It was nice being able to be sarcastic and even rude sometimes with Jasper. It made his ears burn sometimes, like a child who’s parents were was watching him do something naughty. But he liked it all the same.

“Hey!”.

He conjured up his bubble and prevented her from smashing into him, head spinning as he rolled backwards into a tree and it let it drop.

“Pay attention! You’ll get crushed if you keep daydreamin’!”.

He stood, and quickly jumped up high in the air, floating and creating another shield to send at her.

She caught it this time and crushed it in her hands. “Predictable”. She snarled. She had one of those shark smiles on her teeth, that meant she’d probably win if he didn’t step up.

‘Mix it up? Add a new move? Did he have any new moves?”.

“Ha!”. She’d managed to jump high enough to grab his foot and pull him from the air, slamming him into the ground.

“I said pay attention!”. She towered over him and quickly thinking, he shot a shield covered leg out and managed to skip under her.

“Nice move, runt! My turn!”.

Their fighting was often barbaric. Quick, dangerous, heavy hits that would definitely mean spilled blood if either of them were normal humans. Any injury that was more than a bruise, he healed as quickly as possible. Was it weird he wanted to keep the scars? 

The fight ends with her shoving him into the base of a tree. He huffs as soon as she releases him. “Okay okay, you win again”.

“Oh how surprising”.

“Shut up”. 

“Where’s your little pink power from last time? Forget how to use it?”. 

At this he frowns. “I don’t like it. And I can’t control it”. 

She plunks down in the grass, that had just started to grow back. “Your not gonna learn if you keep hiding from it, like a coward”.. 

He sighs as he sits down across from her. “I’m not- It’s frustrating. I don’t wanna hurt anyone”. 

A punch- hard enough to send him falling over-lands on his arm. “You really think you can hurt me?”. 

He frowns. “Yeah, I do. But I don’t want to”. 

“Oh I think you do”. She smirked. “I know, deep down, under all that righteous bullshit-“. 

“I knew I shouldn’t have taught you swears”. 

“You”. She continues, advancing towards him. “Wanna fight. YOU like the satisfaction of destroying an opponent. YOU like getting angry!”.

She punctuated each ‘you’ with a heavy tap on his chest, each hitting directly over his heart.

“No I don’t! I don’t-“.

He could feel the anger take over him, and he knew he was pink as soon as he saw Jasper’s delighted grin. “This is good! Get angry!”.

“You want me angry? Fine”. He growled. “Now I’m angry! Let’s do it!”.

-/-

“That was wasn’t absolutely terrible”. Jasper huffed.

“Yeah?”. Steven replies, still somewhat out of breath, from a few feet away. They had ended the battle in a draw, each of them nearly exhausted. Which meant for the first time in one of their duels... Steven hadn’t lost.

“I mean, you’re still sloppy, not quick enough at times, but overall... I suppose your not as terrible as when you started”.

“Gee thanks”. He replied, dryly, with an unseen roll of his eyes. 

He stands up with an over exaggerated grunt, dusting himself off, and turns to face her. “I’m heading home. See you later?”. 

Jasper huffs, with no other verbal reply, so he turns and walks off into the woods. 

-/-

He’s angry, really angry, for the first time in a while when Bluebird appears in his house. 

“The Gems are acting like it’s completely normal and not suspicious!”. He shouts, tucking into a roll and barely missing Jasper’s kick. 

“So?”. 

“So?”. He conjures his bubble fists, and strikes her square in the gut, sending her backwards into the woods. “It’s very suspicious!”. He shouts after her. 

Great, he had let her get out of sight. Now she was gonna sneak up on him. Her number one lesson-not lesson, she wasn’t his mentor- was don’t get taken by surprise. He stood tense at the foot of the woods. Sure he ‘could’ just take off back towards her little cave-house/whatever she wanted to call it- but she would take that as a sign to chase (almost puppy-like in a way) and he was in no way faster than her when she wanted to catch him. 

“Come on out! What are you hiding for!”. He called out tauntingly, planting a smirk on his face. She couldn’t stand when he showed off any type of real arrogance. 

“Steven?”. 

Steven jumped, turning to face the unknown voice and dropped his shield. He plastered a fake smile on his face. 

“Connie! Hey, hi, hello, Uhhh, what are you doing here in the middle of the woods?”. 

She frowned as she finished picking her way through all the bushes and finally stepped out of the forest. 

“Who were you talking to?”. 

“You! Of course, I mean who else? It’s not like there’s anyone else out here, that’d be weird”. 

She gave him a funny look as she walked over to him, picnic basket in hand. “Uhh.. okay? I asked the Gem’s we’re you were, and they told me you were out in the woods. Why weren’t you answering your phone?”. 

He glanced over towards Jasper’s living area, where his phone was sat on one of the rocks. He could take a hit pretty well, walk off being slammed into a tree like it almost nothing... but his phone could not. Which he’d learned the hard way. So now it sat safely away from any fights. 

“I’ve been... Uh... meditating! Yeah I’ve started meditating to clear my head”. It’s a bad lie, he’s not good at lying, especially not to Connie. 

And he can tell she’s not especially buying it, because she peers around him at the broken earth-pretty sure that’s where he’d slammed Jasper into the ground the other day- and levels him with a suspicious look. “Are you sure that’s what your going with?”. 

“I-“. 

And he doesn’t get to finish the sentence because he’s sudden sent flying back, away from Connie and barely manages to stay on his feet, sliding across the ground, pushing up dirt and grass. 

He looked up, a snarl on his face, when he spotted Connie on the ground, basket clutched in her hands and eyes wide looking rapidly between him and Jasper. 

She tutted at him. “I keep telling you to pay attention!”. She barked out. 

He jumped up, using his floating power, and conjured a shield to kick down at her, grinning when it took her by surprise. 

“Right back at ya!”. 

She hefted up a rock and sent it flying at him, and he conjured his bubble to protect himself. He stood as the bubble broke, small pieces of rock raining down and dusted off his jacket. 

“Steven!”. He hadn’t even noticed Connie creep over to his side, picnic basket abandoned, but there she was grasping at his jacket sleeve. “What the hell are you doing!”. 

He froze. 

“Watch out!”. Connie shoved him to to the side as another rock fell down, crushing the dirt where they had both just stood. 

He turned towards Jasper, who held another rock in her arms. “Best two out of three?”. 

“Connie”. He spoke. He shot her a quick glance, before directing his narrowed eyes back at Jasper. “Are you okay?”. 

“Yeah”. She breathed out. “Fine”. He could hear her dusting off the dirt and dust from her outfit. 

“Go wait in the cave over there”. He nodded his head in the direction. 

“But-“. 

“Please. Gimme a sec to finish this”. His tone was terse. He could faintly see the area around him glowing with a faint pink light. 

-/-

“So... you’ve been out here, fighting Jasper nearly every day?”. 

The fight went rather quickly. It was the first one with Jasper where’d he really won. Not a draw, but he’d actually gotten to the point where he’d pinned her. 

Momentarily at least. Then he’d freaked out because he noticed he was pink, immediately ‘de-pinked’ and she’d tossed him off. 

Still counted in his book. 

Jasper, hadn’t seemed too angry about it. Instead she seemed... proud? In a weird mean older sister type of way. She was sitting a bit away from them off of the picnic basket, but she’d taken some food with her. Apparently she hadn’t really eaten before, but she now going through her third soda can, and a second sandwich. 

“Yeah that’s the gist of it”. He sighed, looking away, feeling ashamed at being caught. 

“Why?”. 

“I- I dunno! It’s just, sometimes I feel really REALLY angry, and I don’t know why?”. He placed a hand on his head. “I come here to relieve stress. It counts as training right? I mean, we’re not technically hurting each other-“. 

“Welcome to being a teenager. All the feelings are kinda... confusing”. Connie sighed, crumbling up her napkin and stuffing it in the basket. “I’m not gonna tell the Gems. Mostly because I don’t think it’s my place. But do you really think this is healthy?”. 

He shrugged, glancing over at Jasper, and tossed an empty can at her. She caught it effortlessly, without looking at him, and took a giant bite out of it. 

“I don’t really know how else to get the anger out”. 

Connie gave him a weird look, and stood up. “Well I hope you figure out another way. I kinda want to join and help you, but your hits seem way too... hard, for a regular human to handle. I hope you work this out, though”. 

“A-are we still on for movie night Thursday?”. He stuttered out. “He didn’t think he could take it if Connie were made at him, or worse disappointed. 

But all she did was smile. “Yeah, of course! See you then!”. And then she disappeared into the woods. 

He stared after her for a moment, sipping on his drink, and spitting it out at Jaspers “so what is she your fusion love partner or something?”.


	2. Sports-beach bunny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Idk how to title chapters, they’re just gonna be named after songs stuck in my head.
> 
> Anyways spoilers for ep.9/10

“I’m not crazy right? Talking to plants because I don’t have any friends around to talk to ISN’T crazy”.

The plants don’t respond.

Steven sighs, glancing around the greenhouse as he finished watering the last of the plants. 

Plants were alive, technically. But talking to them might’ve been weird? Naming them after his friends might’ve been weirder. 

But who else was he gonna talk to? With his plants he could talk about his problems and not be judged . They wouldn’t change and not tell him, because he came everyday to take care of them. His plants NEEDED him.

It felt nice to be needed again.

He groaned, falling back against the wall, and dragged his hands down his face. “What am I doing?”.

-/-

“Why do you have to be so helpless? Why do I need to be needed?”. 

Steven, who was pacing panicked in the green room, turned to glare at the cactus replica of himself. “Would you shut up! And stop repeating me! No one else needs to hear this stuff!”.

Cactus Steven pauses in repetition of spewing out Steven’s self deprecating quotes. Steven sighed in relief, resting a hand on his head. “How am I gonna get rid of this?”.

“Would you shut up!”. 

“Oh, cut it out! That’s it”. He rummaged around, producing an old sheet and threw it over the plant, muffling it’s voice. 

He stood back to admire his work. “Okay, this should do it for now”.

-/-

Okay, it that apparently, didn’t do it.

He conjures his shield to block a nasty swipe from the now large cactus monster version of himself. 

“Oh cut it out!”. It growls, shooting spikes out towards the gems, who had briefly frozen at the appearance of the monster, but now we’re jumping out of the way to avoid getting hit.

“Ouch! Steven what the heck happened to your cactus!”. Amethyst plucked a stray spine from her leg as she summoned her whip. 

“I-I dunno! It just mutated!”. The lie slips through his teeth surprisingly with ease. 

“I’m so tired of Amethyst acting like she’s soooo mature now!”. The cactus groans, and Steven flinches. He needed to get the gems out of there, right now. Ugh! Why had he vented all that stuff in front of the cactus!

“Actually guys I think I can handle this fight by myself!”. He’s quick, the doors already open, and all he really had to do was shove them out and lock the door behind him.

“For once I just want to know better! Why does Garnet have to be so cryptic?”. Cactus Steven growls again and sends out another wave of spikes that Steven doesn’t successfully dodge.

“Ow! Hey! Stop it! Just shut up!”.

“Why do you have to be so helpless”. 

“Stop it!”. He feels the rage rush across his body as he stomps his foot and sends a small shockwave out against the plant monster, sending it falling to floor. The floorboards around him break, and he hears the sound of glass breaking.

“Steven! What is going on!”. Garnets voice draws his focus from the fight.

The door had been broken down, honestly he’s surprised it took them that long to break back in.

He huffs in annoyance. “It’s nothing! I can handle it!”.

“Uh dude, your...kind of glowing?”. 

He looks down at himself and yelps in surprise, the pink eerie glow immediately dissipating.

“Get it together universe!”. The plant draws attention back to itself, but it’s not moving for fight. If anything it looks as tired and upset as Steven feels.

-/-

“Do you... wanna talk about it?”.

He winces briefly, as he turns away from them, and glances down at the lone flower in his hands, and blinks any remaining tears out of his eyes. 

“I think I’ve said enough”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t like this chapter, mostly because I couldn’t think of much to add the episode did a good job on its own


End file.
